With households facing an increase of more than €500 in heating and electricity costs this winter, the Government has to do more than give a €100 credit to every home in the State.
This is the view of People Before Profit Galway representative, Adrian Curran, who said the Government needs to declare a price emergency and fix a maximum unit price on electricity, gas and home heating oil under Section 62 of the Consumer Protection Act 2007.
Mr Curran [pictured below] said this would be “a basic step” to protect users from rampant price inflation. He is also calling for an increase to the fuel allowance by €15 a week and the scrapping of carbon taxes on households.
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“Rising energy costs are particularly affecting the poor and the elderly, increasing poverty and leaving people suffering in the cold this winter,” he said. “It is time for the government to take action to protect households from these extortionate increases.”
Mr Curran said the burden of carbon taxes and energy costs should instead fall on the “wealthy corporations profiteering from increased prices”. He called for the regulation and restriction of large industrial energy users, such as data centres, which currently consume 11 per cent of the State’s total electricity usage.
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He added that the Government must accept that privatisation has failed energy users. “The ESB used to provide some of the cheapest electricity in Europe, privatisation and competition were supposed to lower prices but the opposite has happened,” he said.
Mr Curran also said the State requires “massive investment in renewable energy production” in order to lower prices for consumers, and to reduce the State’s carbon emissions. He said this should be accompanied by a reduction in energy usage through a large-scale retrofit programme to properly insulate homes and reduce reliance on heating.
